Whether the content of the third instalment in Teldec’s Ligeti Project was determined by programme or merely by works still to be recorded, it forms an ideal overview of the composer’s work and an introduction to his music.

The Cello Concerto (1966) juxtaposes the primary Ligetian musical ‘types’ of this period – frozen, imperceptibly changing planes of sound, and surreal gestures which collide in manic and unpredictable ways. Good that Siegfried Palm was able to record a work he himself premièred, in an account less perfectly realised but more characterful than that by Jean-Guihen Queyras. As the title implies, Clocks and Clouds (1973) superimposes rigour and freedom – with a nod towards Minimalist thinking of the period – to create the archetypal Ligeti composition. In what is surprisingly its first commercial recording, balance between voices and ensemble could have had greater spatial depth, but the ethereal nature of the soundscape comes through unimpeded.

In just a decade, the Violin Concerto (1992) has established itself as a modern classic, combining Ligeti’s love of polyrhythmic interplay and varied tunings with a heady recall of his Bartókian heritage. Frank Peter Zimmermann, though far more demonstrative in his response than the oddly lacklustre Christina Åstrand, yields to Saschko Gawriloff in the finely-judged poise of the opening Vivacissimo and Intermezzo. Elsewhere, however, his greater immediacy pays off, with a visceral edge to the closing cadenza that is truly hair-raising. If marginally less accurate than Boulez in his handling of the orchestra, Reinbert de Leeuw is more alive to its extremes of emotional anguish and deadpan humour, bringing the music vividly to life.

Katalin Károlyi guides us entertainingly and movingly through the Sándor Weöres settings of Sippal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel (2000), rendering the naked aggression of ‘Coolie’ and the poetic vision of ‘Bitter-Sweet’ with effortless panache.

With personable notes from the composer, and an interesting sequence of photos and session shots, this is certainly the Ligeti disc that should be in everyone’s collection.